Alison Botha looked down on her own mangled body from a place she could only think of as death. Lying in a pool of her own blood, lifeless and unable to move, she asked herself if the peace she felt floating above was easier than fighting for the life below. She had been raped and tortured, but overcame.

In a job that only paid commission, Chris Gardner was homeless. But not hopeless. He was determined to make it work. He remembered the words of his mother: “You can only depend on yourself. The cavalry ain’t coming.” And so he learned what it took to be a success.

She was all done. Frustrated. Angry. And more than a little bit annoyed. She was 45 and fed up. Determined to make some changes. Mary Kathlyn sat at her kitchen table making a list of all the things that held her back while working in a “man’s” world for the 25 years. And then she turned that world upside down.

Charlie Wedemeyer got the shocking diagnosed of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when he was in his early 30s. Better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, the disease was a death sentence. But he decided to turn it into a life sentence.

Olive Yang was born in British Colonial Burma in the late 1920s. Her family was considered royalty in the region, so expectations were high, but Olive was not the type of “princess” her family expected her to be. She was the world’s most fearsome warlord you’ve never heard of.

His feet screamed. His legs gave out. But every time he fell, Donald “Lofty” Large got back up. Despite the agony, he marched on. He marched for his life. Staying down meant a bullet in the head from his Chinese captors. And at only 20 years old, he wasn’t ready to meet that bullet.

In 1940, Wilma Rudolph was born dangerously premature. At only 4.5 pounds, no one expected her to live. Not the doctors. Not even her parents. But they would soon learn that this precious child of theirs was a fighter.

As Kurt Warner stepped out of his truck, the icy wind ripped at his face, turning his cheeks a splotchy red. He shoved his hands in his pockets. Making sure his fingertips could feel the cold coins inside. He had run out of gas on the way back home because he was broke. And broken. But he had a plan to turn it all around.

He wasn’t bothered so much by the raw, naked greed. It was the incompetent dishonesty that enraged him. They were idiots in suits who thought they were taking advantage of him. Little did they know the measure of the man they were dealing with.The success of Jim Clark was as improbable as it was magnificent.

At 16, Dan Jansen set a Junior World Record in the 500m and came in 16th in 1000 meter. His next stop was the Olympics. Dan gave up the “other sports” and made up his mind to be an Olympian. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Far from it. For every up in Dan Jansen’s life, there was a down, it seemed.

Tom Molineaux stood in a makeshift 24 square foot boxing ring. In England. Ankle deep in mud and blood. Just years earlier, Tom Molineaux had been living his life as an American slave in Virginia. And now he was fighting for his life- and his freedom.

At 21, Dani dove into Hawaiian waters with the intention of not coming back out. She was broke. She was homeless. Living in her car she parked overnight at a beach a 40-minute drive from where she was planning on ending it all right now. And then something miraculous happened.

Alex was barely on the track when he heard the sound of carbon fiber being ripped apart from lightweight metal alloy. It was his supercar. Being torn into bits.He had just been hit by another Formula 1 driver. At 190 miles per hour.Alex heard an explosion. And then he heard nothing. But his journey was not over.

Imagine walking around every day thinking of ways to end your life. Will you walk out in front of a bus? Will you eat a handful of pills? Or will you just use a razor blade? Evan Gattis doesn’t have to imagine it. He lived it. And he got through it in an unconventional way.

When Maggy Barankitse opened the palace door that morning and locked it behind her as she stepped out, she could feel the fear in the air. The silent panic. The underlying cry for blood. She recognized the faces looking back at her. Just outside the front door were her family. and friends. Members of her village and tribe. And now, she was their enemy.

When he got to the gym, shivering from the freezing bike ride there, he walked to the door and pulled. It was locked. And so Arnold Schwarzenegger, at the age of 15, four miles from his home in Thal, Austria did the only logical thing. He broke into the gym. Just so he could keep a promise to himself.

On his ascent up Mount Kilimanjaro, Spencer West looked down at his dirt-stained hands and fingernails. He didn’t know how long it would take before they would be clean again. It was the only time in Spencer’s life he wished he had legs.

Share with a friend, your company, your team, or your family.

If they could do the impossible, so can you. Never forget that.

You’re building your own superhero story right now. Be tough. Fight on.

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About the author

Dan Waldschmidt doesn’t just talk about leveling up. He’s obsessed with it. He's set records as an ultra-runner and been the personal strategist for the leading business leaders of our time. He wrote a book, called EDGY Conversations that accidentally became a worldwide bestseller and continues to share his insights from the stage as a keynote speaker and on the blogs and podcasts you will find here. Most days, you'll find Dan heads-down, working on breakthrough strategies for his clients at EDGY Inc, a highly-focused, invite-only, business strategy execution company based out of Silicon Valley.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dan Waldschmidt doesn’t just talk about leveling up. He’s obsessed with it. He's set records as an ultra-runner and been the personal strategist for the leading business leaders of our time. He wrote a book, called EDGY Conversations that accidentally became a worldwide bestseller and continues to share his insights from the stage as a keynote speaker and on the blogs and podcasts you will find here. Most days, you'll find Dan heads-down, working on breakthrough strategies for his clients at EDGY Inc, a highly-focused, invite-only, business strategy execution company based out of Silicon Valley.

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